Cardiac toxicity not seen 25 years after breast radiation

Here’s heartening news that physicians can convey to breast cancer survivors: Modern breast irradiation did not appear to cause late-term cardiac toxicity in a study that examined women a quarter of a century after they were treated. Investigators found no significant differences in Framingham Heart Study risk scores, hemodynamic parameters, pericardial thickening, or heart failure among 50 women who had been randomized in the 1970s and 1980s to either mastectomy or breast-conserving surgery (BCS) and radiation, Dr. Charles B. Simone II reported at the annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology. Read more here.